NY Times Reporter: Obama WH ‘Greatest Enemy of Press Freedom’ Today

New York Times reporter James Risen has been in a years-long legal battle against the government to reveal one of his confidential sources, even petitioning the Supreme Court to hear his case. He’s been very critical of President Obama‘s administration for its “aggressive use of the powers of the government to try to rein in independent national security reporting,” and in a recent journalism forum, Risen took another shot at the White House for being an enemy of press freedom.

At “Sources + Secrets,” a George Polk Awards conference hosted by The New York Times, Risen went so far as to say the current administration is one of the biggest threats to such freedoms in a while:

[Risen] opened the conference earlier by saying the Obama administration is “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation.” The administration wants to “narrow the field of national security reporting,” Risen said, to “create a path for accepted reporting.” Anyone journalist who exceeds those parameters, Risen said, “will be punished.”